COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 231-1
COURSE TITLE: Corporate Finance
UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units
INSTRUCTOR: Raghavendra Rau
E-MAIL ADDRESS: raghu@haas.berkeley.edu
PREREQUISITE(S): EWMBA 203
CLASS FORMAT: Mix of lectures and case discussions.
REQUIRED READINGS: Textbook and other readings on study.net or bCourses
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
CAREER FIELD:
This course is especially useful for those hoping to make a career in corporate finance. It also is useful for students from other areas who are interested in getting an intuitive and practical understanding of what finance is all about.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This course is a logical continuation of MBA203 – Core Finance. The objective of the course is to provide you with the conceptual framework necessary to appreciate and understand the problems facing the financial manager of an operating business. Readings, case analysis, and problem sets focus on the basic tools used by financial analysts and financial decision makers.
The course is devoted to the two basic financial problems that all companies face: (1) On what should funds be spent (i.e., investment decisions)? and (2) From where should funds be obtained
(i.e., financing decisions)?
In the first part, we consider such topics as financial statement analysis, financial planning, and project analysis (i.e., capital budgeting). In the second part, we explore what securities the firm can issue to raise funds, how firms decide on the mix of securities with which they will finance their operations, and how to calculate the firm’s resulting cost of capital. Finally, we will use a series of cases to discuss corporate valuation in mergers and acquisitions, and leveraged buy-outs and initial public offerings (IPOs).
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Professor Rau is the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is visiting the Haas school in 2017-18. He has taught at a number of universities around the world, including the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences PO), Purdue University, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, Professor Rau was Principal at Barclays Global Investors, then the largest asset manager in the world, in San Francisco from 2008-2009. He is a past president of the European Finance Association, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Banking and Finance, International Review of Finance and the Quarterly Journal of Finance, and a past editor of Financial Management. His research interests lie in the area of corporate finance and market efficiency. His research has frequently been covered by the popular press including the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist, among others. Professor Rau is a founding Director of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and a member of the Cambridge Corporate Governance Network (CCGN). He won the Ig Nobel Prize in Management in 2015, a prize awarded for research that makes people laugh, and then think.